


Worse Than Magic

by marawrder



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 22:20:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20628443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marawrder/pseuds/marawrder
Summary: As James Potter and his friends start their seventh year at Hogwarts, some major change is afoot. Confusing stuff, for example: When did Lily Evans become bearable? How will the events of the past summer affect their friendship? How can they stop the violent movement of dark wizards and witches while trapped within the walls of the safest place in Britain?They are young, and there are a whole lot of things they still have to experience to become the people they are supposed to be. Starting with that hair, Sirius, Merlin.





	Worse Than Magic

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little fic I started writing and planning out in 2017, but never actually got around to posting. If you notice style changes, that is my own personal character development, babey!

James Potter knew that there was more to magic than flicking a stick and saying made-up-sounding words. Magic was within each and every witch and wizard, it needed channeling, a wand being the way that was easiest to learn, and even that wasn't that easy. With practice, one could learn to master all kinds of ways to channel one's magic, and James had tried out quite a lot of them for his age. But he also knew that sometimes, magic did strange little things on its own, and without a way of stopping it. And he knew that he didn't know half as much about magic as he thought he did, and neither did most other people. The more he grew aware of his ignorance, the more often he wondered what he could do, or undo, if he just knew how?

Something else James Potter was aware of: he could not undo crushes, especially not old ones. And his oldest one was probably the one that still haunted him the most. You never forget about your first love, was that not a saying? He didn't really know what love was, but maybe he had fallen in it, which made it so difficult to forget about it. Especially when he was still exposed to that person's presence, even though he was definitely, positively over her. But he'd fallen for her in the very first week of meeting her, her fiery red hair had caught his attention as much as her sparkling green eyes and her quick mouth. Lily Evans just had something about her that young James Potter had never seen in a girl, never seen in anyone, and it had fascinated him from the beginning. Of course, in true eleven-year-old pureblood only child fashion, he had tried to impress her with his knowledge of the magic world and his accomplishments in it, and miserably failed. His other classmates seemed to fall for it, though, and so within only a few weeks, he had managed to get popular with anyone but the girl he had actually wanted to notice him. After a while, every time he tried to make an advance, she told him her opinion of him, which was rarely if ever kind. He had given up on the advances after learning that they were no good, although only reluctantly. Why would she not like him back? It'd hurt his ego rather than his feelings, yet it had taken him a long while to get over her. He had, maybe, actually really liked her, but he hadn't known how to handle it, so he couldn't blame her for hating him. And he was rather sure she hated him, still now, more than six years after he'd left the first, rather unappealing, impression. He had to admit, he had been a fairly arrogant brat when he was younger, always objecting teachers, bending the rules to his liking and feeling like a king on top of the world. He still did, there was no denying that, but the difference was that at least now he had learned humility. Seventeen-year-old James Potter, in comparison with his eleven-year-old self, had stopped caring for what the people of Hogwarts thought of him, with the exception of his closest friends. That was mostly due to the fact that he could rely on the polarity of the two opinions on him that were the general consensus at the school: half of the students hated him– if it was because of jealousy or grudges or disagreement with his morals, and the other half worshiped him for his daring and wittiness or, well, his good looks. His reputation was sound and steady, so there was no reason to worry about how people felt about him, including Lily Evans.

Nevertheless, somehow, she wouldn't let go of him. It was like a curse: There were days when he'd completely forget about her existence altogether, and others when just hearing her voice in class or spotting a red speck in the mass of grey and black in the yard from his window up in the Gryffindor tower would send him into a spiral of thoughts all revolving around Lily Evans. Not thoughts of longing, or love or even jealousy. Just normal, innocent thoughts, wondering what she might be doing, deciding whether he liked her new haircut, remembering that one time they fought over the last blueberry pancake at breakfast. Usually, though, she would just pop into his head for a few seconds, for no apparent reason, do a complete turn and disappear again. James wasn't in love with Lily Evans, not anymore if he'd ever been, he didn't even want to be friends if he was completely honest. She didn't like him anyways. No, James Potter was caught in the clutches of a small but powerful crush, like a spell he couldn't control. A crush curse, so to say.

Sirius Black, James Potter's best friend and arguably the only person more popular than him, didn't do crushes. It was all or nothing, and in most cases nothing, because all was usually just way too stressful. The list of things in this world that Sirius Black loved, truly loved, was noticeably short and therefore rather exclusive, as the only people who could even qualify to get on it were the three boys he had chosen and that had chosen him as best friends in their first year. Before that, nobody of significance had really been in his life, a time period he'd prefer to forget. No, although many people would describe him as someone who had far too much time on his hands, Sirius Black did not have time for crushes. And even if he did, from what he had seen from his best friends, crushes weren't exactly pleasurable. Especially what James had gone through. Even though after a while, with Sirius' tenacious support, his best friend had been cured of the plague that was Lily Evans, she still was part of the substantially longer list of things Sirius disliked. Not exactly at the top of the list, of course, there surely were more pressing issues than a constantly nagging, kill-joy know-it-all who would go to any lengths to show him and his friends up just because she was a prefect and was jealous of the good grades that required virtually no effort, and who had demanded all of James' attention in the first and second year at Hogwarts. Now he rarely spoke of her, to be fair, but that didn't keep her from being an insufferable smart-arse. Never ever would Sirius fall for someone like that. Or fall for anyone, for that matter, not if he could help it, which he could, because come on. This was Sirius Black.

"Fuck! What the fuck, James!" came from upstairs, followed by a loud howling sound. "Your bloody pin is stuck in my foot!" 

The boy called upon sprinted up the stairs, not to be there quickly to aid his friend but just for the sake of sprinting — what else were long legs made for? "What pin?" James inquired as he entered the room he shared with his best friend. When Sirius had agreed to stay at the Potters' for good, James had insisted he move into his room, even though there were enough rooms at his disposal. It was big enough, after all, and they had both gotten used to sleeping in the same room as a handful of other boys and so this was the next best thing. Besides, this was the only room on the first floor that had windows from which one could climb onto the roof of the veranda at the back of the house and from there jump over the garden fence and sneak out without waking the plants, which was a privilege he could neither give up nor deny his friend. Sirius looked up from where he sat on James' messy bed, clutching his injured foot. 

"Ew, gerroff, you're bleeding all over my sheets!" James exclaimed at the sight of him. 

Sirius glowered at him. "Your stupid Head Boy pin was lying on the ground and I stepped in it. By the way, when did you plan on telling me?"

"My what now?" With two long strides, James had crossed the room and picked up the small golden lapel pin lying on the carpet. When he turned it around in his hand, the words HEAD BOY flared up in golden letters on red enamel. This was a Head Boy pin. Next to his bed. "It must've fallen out of the envelope...", he mumbled, his gaze fixed on the small insignia in his hand. How did he deserve this? Of course, he was a bright student, managed to stay at the top of his classes without really working for it, but he never paid attention, had skipped classes, broken every rule in the book... And yet, Dumbledore had decided to give him the biggest responsibility at the entire school.

"How'd you miss it, Prongsie? It says it right here: 'Dear Mister Potter. Congratulations–'" Sirius' shockingly accurate imitation of McGonnagal's voice was abruptly broken off by James ripping the letter from his hands.

"I didn't read the letter, alright? Figured it'd be just the same wittering as every year," James snapped. He wasn't irritated, just impatient. Anxiously biting his lip, he skimmed the text for any indication that this wasn't just a misunderstanding. But it stated it clearly, in his professor's small curly handwriting he recognized after years of not copying it from the blackboard and reading it off of detention slips. "I'm Head Boy!" Luckily, they had found the pin before the new school year had started, this wouldn't have been the first time things got lost in the depths of their messy room. The house elf wasn't allowed in there since James had developed the urge to protect his privacy when he was around fourteen years old, and even then, many uncomfortable incidents happened that could have been avoided...

"It's a miracle," Sirius rolled his eyes "Or just a mistake. Two galleons on the latter. Now get me a plaster." And with that, the topic was done. At least for the moment. For the next weeks, James would not take off the pin wherever he went, proudly sticking his chest out whenever people were around to show off his new status. With Euphemia Potter telling everyone she knew that "Her little boy was Head Boy now!" and James walking around like he owned the place, soon enough the whole town knew it, wizards and muggles alike. It sure was an accomplishment not many could brag about, and it wasn't like Sirius would begrudge him that, but there was no reason to be a prick about it. Remus, for example, had born his prefect badge humbly, only ever mentioning it when the boys were about to do something really against the rules, which still was way too often, but now Sirius wished for James to show at least half the humility that Remus had. That would be a problem as well – how would James be able to follow his duty as a Head Boy when he was first and foremost a marauder? Not to speak of him moving out of the Gryffindor tower and into the Head Boy dorm on the other side of the castle, a measure Sirius found incredibly unnecessary. Whoever the Head Girl was, she would probably have to fight him for James.

Their last summer had probably been their best summer, the Marauders all agreed on that. They had savoured every bit of it, not only because of the bittersweet knowledge that this was their last summer break, and around this time next year they would all be going their separate ways, but because they had seized all the right opportunities to make this the most memorable time they could have. Their families had only gotten to enjoy their presence for a week before the four boys set off to France, a small town on the South Coast where all you could do was swim, eat and stay up late sitting on the beach throwing bottles, playing catch, talking, laughing, teasing. It was only them, beer and three weeks of sun before they left their little bubble and came back to the real world, where more and more people rallied behind the fanatic calling himself the Dark Lord and things were looking more and more like the wizarding world was on the brink of a war. From then on, they only met in James' living room, because flooing was safer than going outside, even though Peter only lived three blocks away, but despite the dire situation, they still had a blast. One time, on a rare occasion where the four met at the Lupins', Remus showed his friends how a toaster worked. Of course they had all eaten toasted bread before, but who knew that muggles, who did not know the benefits of wands and house elves, had invented a little machine that, besides toasting bread at only a push of a button, almost gave Sirius a heart-attack every time the bread jumped out. That afternoon they probably had more bread than any of them had ever eaten in one day, just because Peter, Sirius and James insisted on seeing another demonstration of the toaster every ten minutes. 

But as the break drew to a close, even the laziest among them could not help but look forward to their first day of the last year at Hogwarts. Sirius and James had packed their trunks three days in advance, out of boredom, they proclaimed, which was not only very rare but also mildly inconvenient, because things such as toothbrushes and socks had to be dug up if they cared to look like at least somewhat hygienic people, which of course was not a top priority, so on their last night before the train ride back to Hogwarts they silently agreed not to brush their teeth and to sleep in their socks so that the next day they would not have to find a new pair.

Parting with the Potters on the Platform 9¾ was more sentimental than ever, this time. Not only was their boy Head Boy, not only was it the last time they'd say goodbye to their son and their as-good-as-son, but they also parted knowing that somewhere out there, the most dangerous wizard in the world was gathering an army. Although Hogwarts was probably the safest place they could go now, letting the boys out of their sight and their protection always took a toll. A lot of hugs and an "Ew mum, I'm not your handkerchief!" from James' side later, they were finally boarding the Hogwarts Express to leave King's Cross Station one last time.

"You should probably go to the prefects' compartment, James," Remus remarked as he shoved his trunk into the compartment Sirius, James and Peter had settled in. There was no trace of bitterness or jealousy in his voice, but Sirius could imagine that Remus must have been at least extremely puzzled when he had found out about who the new Head Boy was. 

"Maybe later." James shrugged and continued to rummage around his luggage for the bag of money he had brought especially for the ride and the trolley that was about to pass their compartment any minute. "What about you, Moony?"

Remus chose to ignore the question and dropped on the seat next to Sirius. "Aren't you curious to see who's Head Girl?" he inquired with a grin.

James, who hadn't found his money but instead his mother's care package and who was now chewing on one of her fig cookies which were delicious if they didn't have the texture and chewability of cork, shrugged again, but this time he looked up. "Why, do you know who it is?"

Remus shook his head. "No idea. But I'd be curious to see whom I'd be sharing a room and most of my afternoons with if I were you."

"They're not actually sharing a room, are they?", Sirius interjected with a furrowed brow, but Peter, who'd been studying what looked like a magazine made up of shredded pieces of other newspapers put together like a puzzle to form sentences and pictures, calmed him down.

"No, they each have their own dorm room. They just share a kind of common room in the middle, but it's more like a walk-through room. It's tiny, barely fits a sofa."

Sirius wasn't satisfied with that, though. "Are they really going to work almost every afternoon?" he asked warily, rather directed towards Remus than James, who did not seem to have a clue and did not seem to care.

"Probably not, but a sizable portion at least... Besides, James also has Quidditch training to attend." He gave Sirius an apologetic smile. "What, did you plan on making another map or what do you need him for this badly?"

Before Sirius could lay out his elaborate plan to make this year the peak of their prank history at Hogwarts and an unforgettable conclusion to a brilliant seven years, he was interrupted by the compartment door being slammed open. 

"Ah, Potter, I knew I'd find you here." 

James, who had picked up pace when he heard the door open, digging even faster to get the money before the trolley witch would leave again, stood still abruptly at the sound of that voice. "What d'you want, Evans?" He managed to make his voice sound just the right mix of uninterested and cool but not unfriendly, which he had perfected in the last year. She would never suspect that the curse had a tight grip around his throat, making him feel like he'd flush a bright red at and second.

"I want you in the prefect compartment. Or rather, McGonagall does. We're gonna go over some Head Girl and Boy things." Lily's voice mimicked James; cool and professional. Till now, he hadn't given her a reason to be irritated, and just the sight of his face was not actually a legitimate justification. 

"We?" The red and golden enamel pin on her collar, identical to the one he was wearing, only caught his eye after the word had left his mouth. "Oh." There wasn't anything clever he could say, at least not right this second; the curse was clouding his brain and weighing down his tongue. He could swear, the last time he had spoken to her he hadn't felt like this. 

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, oh indeed, Potter. Let's go."


End file.
